flying duck logo duck digital : review - strategy - design

60 Bridge St. Northcote, Australia. 3070
voice: 61 3 96511510 email: simonp@cinemedia.net

RMIT

Web site Review

Final report : 20th November 1998

by Dr Simon Pockley

© 1998 Duck Digital

This report is also a hypertext available [on-line]:

http://www.rmit.edu.au/review/

(discussion and comment welcome)

Sitemap/contents

  1. Preface
  2. Vision
  3. Executive Summary
  4. Comparison of Universities (Table)
  5. Assessment strengths and weaknesses
  6. Conclusions
  7. Appendices
  8. Glossary
  9. Micro-assessments
    10. RMIT Homepage
    RMIT About
    RMIT Admissions
    RMIT Courses
    Faculty of Applied Science
    The Faculty of Art, Design and Communication
    Faculty of Biomedical & Health Sciences & Nursing
    Faculty of Business
    Faculty of the Constructed Environment
    Faculty of Education Language and Community Services
    Faculty of Engineering
    International Division
    RMIT Libraries Home page
    Interactive Information Institute
    Information Management
    Quality Development Unit
    Quality Management System
    Teaching & Learning
    RMIT Alumni

    University of Melbourne: Home page
    University of Sydney: Home page
    Monash University: Home page
    University of Technology Sydney Home page
    Swinburne University of Technology: Home page
    MIT: Home page
    Stanford University: Home page
    Harvard University: Home page
    University of NSW Home page
    Deakin University: Home page
    University of South Australia: Home page
    Curtin University: Home page
    Queensland University of Technology: Home page

Preface

The origins of the RMIT web site can be traced to either Garry Hardy's 1992 pre-web Gopher Server or to Richard Muirden's idiosyncratic 1994 RMIT.edu.au web site. Five years ago there was little administrative foresight that these pioneering efforts would grow into the vast aggregation of disparate resources and services - now evolving into the primary medium through which the Universityís assets will be managed.

In August 1998, Mathew Boland of RMIT Corporate Affairs commissioned a review of the RMIT University web site. The aim of this review was :


  1. to identify the purpose of the RMIT website.
  2. to benchmark RMIT's website performance against international standards and a selection of other universities.
  3. to make recommendations for the development an exemplary site.

To this end, representative samples of the RMIT web site have been benchmarked against international standards and the RMIT homepage compared to its equivalent at other universities. Surveys, interviews and usability testing have complemented these assessments.

The following report has been written by Simon Pockley with research assistance from Janis Lesinskis.

Thanks must go to all those staff and students (current and prospective) who contributed their time and enthusiasm to this review.

Vision

The borders of the University of the future will define a space in which educational experiences are mediated by an honest broker. Management of these experiences and access to the University community, as well as to research and researchers, will be achieved through the integration of networked communications with existing University services (Library, administration, course descriptions, teaching and learning etc.).

Integration will be facilitated by a task oriented approach, where the goal is that all staff and students will be able to find what they are looking for without confusion. A clearer vision of this future will be achieved through the development of an infrastructure capable of supporting long-term access to all University resources. It will be based on good practice and on emerging international standards of resource description.

The benefits of having an effective resource management infrastructure will be:

Executive Summary 

	
	the website is a mirror of the physical University

			       Troy Boulton (RMIT webmaster)

Overview

This review has shown that RMIT University is typical of most universities in as far as there is a general lack of consistency and little evidence of an awareness (or understanding) of accessibility and metadata (resource description) standards.

The RMIT web siteís higher level strength is that it has a web master who understands many of these issues. Its weakness is that this understanding is not apparent at a Faculty level or supported by a comprehensive and strategic digital resource management policy (a development framework for such a policy is suggested in Appendix 1).

At its higher levels, the RMIT web siteís current purpose is identified by staff as a way of attracting and accommodating the needs of prospective students. However, usability testing shows that the site is confusing to prospective students and uses language that is not understood (see Appendix).

Other issues needing urgent attention include:

These problems reflect a period of major transition for the University. The use of computers to create high-quality digital resources in a networked electronic environment is shifting the foundations on which the structures of Higher Education have been built. In the words of a senior member of IT administration, RMIT's on-line activities can be characterised by ìa lack of co-ordination, ignorance, confusion, waste, frustration and foolish applications of technology .

In RMIT's unstructured on-line environment, (as it stands) the reality is as dismal as the promises and expectations are exciting.

A cohesive look and feel to the public face of this networked environment (the web site) is not just a matter of providing guides and hoping they will be followed. The RMIT web master has provided easy access to a range of exemplary guides, as well as templates and site building resources. If RMIT is to have a truly exemplary web site then it must support the use of these resources (and the web master) by implementing a comprehensive and strategic digital resource management policy. The process of developing such a strategy will form the basis of an effective management infrastructure that will eventually lead to a more cohesive and structured on-line environment.

The way ahead

At Faculty level there may always be a tension between the need for an identifiable consistency of presentation and the need to allow for individual expression. But this should not be confused with the need to implement a university-wide resource management infrastructure - where one does not compromise the other. Some senior managers at RMIT doubt that this will be possible. Nevertheless, the absence of a university-wide regulatory framework is a significant barrier to achieving the goals of the Teaching and Learning Strategy. It is apparent that a practical framework for resource management appears to have slipped through the motherhood benefits of the Alignment Project.

In a shared information landscape, there are new symbiotic relationships working to connect academics and students to a range of technology based professional associations and standards outside the University.

The urgent need to conform to an internationally recognised metadata standard is strategically important as a means of leveraging the development of a resource management policy. Standards are a warm campfire to gather around as the winds of rapidly changing technology, blow from every direction.

It will not be easy. To have any chance of effective implementation, such a strategy must be owned and developed by the Faculties and draw on the considerable range of experience and expertise within the University. The recent formation of a committee of the Faculty Directors of IT may provide an appropriate vehicle for implementing resource management policy because it provides the missing element in the Alignment Project. However, the DoITs will need the help and advice of key co-ordinating individuals - including the RMIT webmaster and the University Librarian.

Conclusions

In order to develop an effective website, RMIT needs to understand that a distinctive and exemplary look and feel will only be achieved when the site reflects the development of an effective underlying infrastructure capable of supporting long-term access to all University resources.

The following inter-related actions are recommended :

  1. Develop and implement a strategic Resource Management Policy
  2. Adopt, and support, the web masterís guidelines for resource creation
  3. Adopt a Universal Access Policy
  4. Electronic submission of theses and research projects.
  5. Migrate higher level [on-line] entry points to an effective server
  6. Develop or deploy a task-based Search Engine
  7. Investigate how to integrate legacy data bases
  8. Develop a Data Protection Code
  9. Support the International Division

These actions will not be effective if they are implemented in isolation, or through imposition. There is a vast reservoir of experience and expertise within the University to draw on and from which to develop a culture of collaboration. However, they will require strong and visionary leadership and they will need to be accompanied by an effective program of awareness buliding, training and change management.

Comparison of Universities

Fast download is now recognised as the single most important usability factor. Speed has been found to be three times more important than looks and attention rapidly wanes after 10 seconds. In this table universities are ranked by download time. Times are based on the use of a 28,800 baud modem. An arbitrary delay of 0.5 seconds is added for each file to account for slow-downs caused by HTTP connection times.

University CURTN RMIT MIT MNASH DEKN UTS MELB SWIN QUT HARVD STNFD SYD NSW UNISA
Download (secs) 2.88 8.82 12.23 14.39 14.62 16.37 17.18 17.21 18.10 20.94 22.21 25.93 31.32 32.31
W3C HTML Good Poor Good Good Poor Poor Good Poor Poor Poor Good Poor Poor Poor
W3C Access Good Poor Good Good Poor Poor Good Poor Poor Good Good Poor Good Poor
D.C. Metadata OK Poor None None None Poor None Poor None Poor Poor Poor Fair Poor
Text option Yes No No Yes No Yes No No Yes No No Yes Yes No
Search Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Poor Yes No
Help/contact Yes Yes No Yes No Yes No No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No
LOTE option Yes No No No No No No No No No No No No No
Privacy Statement No No No No No No No No No No No No No No
Sitemap/overview No No Yes No No Yes No Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes No
Y2K notice No No No No No No No No No No No Yes No No
Server:10k/secs 1.97 5.03 1.02 1.11 3.53 5.53 3.76 3.35 1.61 0.28 0.64 1.84 2.08 1.62

Assessment strengths and weaknesses

Consistency

The RMIT Webmaster's; resources site is already exemplary. It provides clear access to templates, style guides and training in an effort to foster the development of a distinctive look and feel without compromising accessibility guidelines concerning the use of frames, graphics etc.

Clearly the provision of these guidelines alone is not enough. Adherence to accessibility standards will continue to be frustrated if these guidelines are not supported by university policy.

RMIT site does not adhere to RMIT guidelines. Should we ignore the guidelines as well to make our site more consistent with the RMIT site, or should we adhere to the guidelines?

pathetic....its not properly integrated. Seems like Building 1 is being fascist about this (seig heil. seig heil ) they're just control freaks.

One of the most persistent survey responses about the RMIT web site was its overall lack of consistency (general look and feel). Even at the higher Faculty levels, the range of approaches indicates how difficult and challenging it will be to find the common ground from which to build an effective management infrastructure and reflect it back through the site by look and feel.

In part, this is due to the history and legacy of bottom up development. In some cases, it is due to a lack of resources. In others, it represents an assertion of independence.

Inconsistency is also a direct result of not having a clear digital resource management policy. Any implementation of such a policy must address the need to find effective ways of encouraging a usability testing culture and an adherence to recognised Accessibility Guidelines.

Good interface design is not a fixed outcome. It is a dynamic and iterative process during which empirical (usability) testing needs to be regularly scheduled. For example, usability testing a range of university sites at Northcote High School revealed flaws in the way in which core information is structured and presented.

..we can't find anything on this site, it would be easier to ring 013..

Course information is currently structured under the headings Undergraduate and Postgraduate. Assumptions have been made that prospective students understand the meaning of these terms. Testing shows that they do not.

Accessibility

With some praiseworthy exceptions, such as the International Division, access problems were the most persistent design flaws encountered during the Review.

The main accessibility problems encountered are as follows:

Universal access is an important economic, legal and policy issue, but it is also a fundamental design constraint. RMIT web designers must be encouraged to accommodate small and large displays, monochrome and colour, slow and fast transmission, as well as the various browsers that may not support specific features (especially Java scripts).

The entertainment and promotional value of displaying the latest, flashiest byte-hungry features usually comes at the expense of a more balanced approach enabling users to control their on-line environment by choosing between several versions of the interface.

The graphics slow things down. The information's more important to me.

See: International Division [On-line]

http://www.ip.edu.au/internat

While there are some indications that prospective students in Asia are using level 4 browsers (capable of supporting streaming video), it is likely that the provision of text-only versions for students with low-bandwidth access and small displays will become even more important as the university moves into the remote delivery of educational experiences. Students with low-cost devices, students in developing countries with poor communication infrastructure, students wanting low-bandwidth wireless access, students with small personal display devices, and students with handicaps will continue to constitute the largest proportion of the university community.

we are time poor - we need quick, simple access.

Accommodating diverse users should be a clear performance outcome for most designers since it enlarges the scope for the delivery of applications and provides for more equitable access.

It is also apparent (in all the current manifestations of the RMIT web site) that there are implicit assumptions about users being able to see and read English.

Search Facility

Testing of the staff phone book revealed a fast and effective phone number finding engine. The database covers part time staff and even visiting fellows. Phone numbers are updated weekly. Kay Glaubitz, senior telephonist, is to be congratulated on her work in making this an exemplary service.

It would appear that ITS and the Human Resources Division does not have a crosswalk to this database. A crosswalk would facilitate up-to-date searching through the general University search engine.

This search facility at the RMIT Home page is perplexing. The `Complex Query Interface to the RMIT Harvest Server Brokerí returns statistical data, the information is obscure and in a form and format that is not easily interpreted. Usability testing with prospective students found the search engine to be so confusing as to be useless.

The degree to which space is able to be aesthetically employed on the RMIT Home page is directly proportional to the effectiveness of a university wide search engine.

By deploying appropriate metadata the web can now act as a bridge between the more traditional database discovery engines and users with poorly formed information needs who are just browsing.

Examples of projects that take advantage of the Dublin Core are Available on-line:

The National Library of Australia's MetaWeb Project.

http://www.dstc.edu.au/RDU/MetaWeb/

Gateway to Educational Materials (GEM).

http://geminfo.org/

Australian Museums on-line (AMOL).

http://amol.phm.gov.au/AMOL/home.shtml

Course Information Data Warehouse (CIDW )

CIDW is best on the main site although we will link to it if it ever matures, not a high priority issue.

There seems to be a lot of resistance to new software (just have a look at the Groupwise roll-out), perhaps because the CIDW is in-house software, there is more concern about its reliability.

It would be good if the CIDW was accurate, up to date and worked in a sensible way. It would be especiallyî ìhandy if each course had a fixed URL.

The Course Information Data Warehouse is actually proving to be a can of worms, and whilst it is a good platform for centralised Course Info on the web, people have to better understand what it can do, what it is for, where it replaces elements of Faculty/departmental web sites (and why), and how it can provide opportunities for better presentation of the information (and what should then be on their own sites).

The CIDW is an encouraging sign that a resource management framework is considered desirable. Survey results show that this initiative is firmly grounded in Faculty priorities. However, in the limited context in which a publications driven project has taken place, the project has had a mixed reception.

36% of returned surveys indicated course information to be the first priority while 12% indicated course information to be their second priority.

From another perspective, the CIDW can be seen as a digital migration project in which paper based brochure content has been moved into a digital environment. Unfortunately, this project has been hampered (at the outset) by the forced marriage of an outmoded proprietary (Master file) database to a new purpose-built proprietary architecture. The structural and descriptive paradigms of both these systems serve to restrict the CIDW to internal RMIT use only.

An object oriented approach, deploying extended Dublin Core elements for resource description would result in an inter-operable and scalable system more in keeping with the objectives of the Alignment Project and even the course sharing aspirations of the ATN.

Unfortunate experiences with other initiatives such as Reflections have helped build departmental resistance to new data management systems. There are international examples of similar initiatives, such as the American GILS, which have failed because they were perceived (by the content providers) to be too complex or difficult to use. Although, the CIDW is at an early stage in its development, there are indications that there are a number of issues the CIDW needs to address:

Email

In many ways email is one of the most important and far reaching communications changes in the world today. Email had its origins in university research and its use and function is widely understood (but not its management). It has rapidly become the dominant medium of academic discussion and peer review.

Many students and staff have expressed disappointment in the lack of an effective and reliable email service at RMIT. Students in the Faculty of Business are being told to get themselves hotmail (a Microsoft product).

they told us Groupwise was not functioning and to get HotMail or Start.com.au. I use Hot Mail. It works well.

Two years ago an evaluation of RMITís email service recommended that Groupwise be installed as a functional extension of the Novell server architecture. The roll out to staff initially experienced problems with underspecified machines which were in some cases attributed to a change in servers.

A lack of capacity planning and a tendency to under report official use has also hampered the roll out to Faculties. As a result there is widespread dissatisfaction and frustration.

get them to dump groupwise - it sucks

These problems are another symptom of the tension between Faculty freedom and centralised University control. There is no easy solution but there is a clearly understood outcome and that is that all students and staff at RMIT are provided with a reliable and efficient email service.

Emails may soon become legal binding documents. They are certainly digital resources in need of a management and preservation strategy.

While it is outside the scope of this review, RMIT ITS might consider investigating the possibility of out-sourcing a comprehensive and scalable email service for all students and staff.

Commercial exploitation

Advertising branding, logos, policy and asset allocation

Commercial exploitation of the Internet has now begun. For universities, there are potential benefits and pitfalls arising from the convergence of education, entertainment and business. Some on-line business models may be compatible with the objectives of RMITís corporate policy and therefore need to be explored. At least, they need to be understood so that at a contractual level RMIT does not unknowingly give away significant future revenue streams. Some of these opportunities also raise issues of privacy and data control that impact on ethical practices.

We want to attract customers (sales) internal and external to RMIT.

Business Models

There are several on-line business models that can now be identified:

The Internet is rapidly becoming the first commercial medium in which it is possible to accurately measure consumer response, not just assume it. It is appropriate that RMIT should take advantage of response data in order to promote and refine its teaching and learning services. Furthermore, RMITís strategic marketing objectives should not dismiss the possibility that some forms of on-line advertising could become a significant source of revenue or sponsorship. It is important to move beyond the current paradigms of product based advertising and to understand that the convergent forces at work may well provide sponsorship agreements which actually enhance service delivery.

Currently, there are three major types of advertiser-supported sites that might provide models for enhancement:

As yet, there are no established principles for measuring site traffic on commercial Web sites seeking to generate revenues from advertising sponsorship. This is because there is no standard way of measuring consumer response to advertisements. Nor are there standards for optimal media pricing models and there is even uncertainty about the terminology applicable to Web advertising.

The concept of an active advertisement is a feature that differentiates Web advertising from advertising in traditional media. Active exposure is under the consumerís control and passive exposure is under the marketer's control.

The dominant approach to Web media pricing is based upon site traffic or exposure. This assumes that accurate information on site traffic is made available to the advertiser or sponsor. The danger in relying on an exposure model is that a manager may be driven to scale the sites to larger mass audiences with more homogeneous tastes in order to attract more advertising revenue.

Visitor measurement and analysis

The Web measurement process involves counting and summarising the visitor transactions on a Web site. Measurement and analysis products that provide information to managers about who is accessing their site, when, and what is being accessed are now appearing. Different products perform these tasks at different levels of specificity and with different degrees of accuracy.

The often cited hits are actually a poor measure of Web traffic. Hits include all units of content (images, text, sound files, Java applets) sent by a Web server when a particular URL is accessed. Each element is recorded by the siteís Web server log file as a ìhit.î Content structure and visit patterns vary from site to site, so the number of hits bears no relationship to the number of files actually viewed or visits to a site.

Clear, unambiguous measurement procedures are needed in order to:

Such procedures are critical to provide mechanisms for tracking usage as well as measuring investment and business opportunities.

Privacy and Data Ownership

Privacy is not a purely political or moral issue. Confidential access to information resources is a critical issue with potentially significant economic consequences. In a recent American survey of 1,400 web sites, over 90% collected personal information but only 14% disclosed how this information would be used.

RMIT needs to consider carefully issues of privacy in the context of web measurement and the collection of navigation and transaction data. Networked computing environments like the Internet offer unprecedented opportunities for the invasion of privacy. Information about individuals is now more accessible and more easily combined and integrated than in the physical world.

Privacy can be considered a commercial benefit in an electronic environment where personal data is a commodity.

There are several technical solutions to the provision of privacy:

However, minimum standards of data protection can only be effective if they are incorporated into a strategic policy.

Informed consent is an essential goal of when it comes to implementing an ethical approach to data gathering. It is important that everyone knows to whom information is being revealed and why.

Victoria currently has no data protection law covering personal data. The Victorian Data Protection Bill (in draft form awaiting ratification by Parliament) takes a national approach and complements the National Principles for the Fair Handling of Information issued in February 1998 by the Federal Privacy Commissioner.

These principles aim to establish a national benchmark for the fair handling of personal information that can be applied across all domains.

They cover the following areas:

Collection
Use and disclosure
Data quality
Data security
Openness
Access and correction
Identifiers
Anonymity
Transborder data flows
Sensitive information

It is proposed that a national data protection regime will have two elements:

Where a voluntary code is submitted to the Privacy Commissioner and approved, the default legislative scheme will not apply so long as the parties concerned comply with their code.

Dr Bridget Bainbridge, the main architect of this legislation,

[email] bridget.bainbridge@mmv.vic.gov.au

is happy to work with RMIT on the development of such a code. More information is available on-line:

http://www.privacy.gov.au/policy/index.html

Access to Research

The Teaching and Learning Strategy appears to overlook that RMIT is also a research centre. Some Universities promote access to their research projects as a means of attracting prospective students. Many students and staff are now making digitised versions of traditional (print) theses and research papers available on-line. Today, most of these papers are created electronically. Although it is more efficient to allow them to remain in digital formats to facilitate ease of access and handling, the RMIT Higher Degrees Committee still insists on paper based presentations in traditional formats.

In some universities it is now mandatory to submit academic work electronically. Digital formats are often non-textual (in the traditional sense) as scholarship begins to take advantage of the effective use of hypertext and hypermedia. There is now an urgent need at RMIT to make adjustments to the procedures of supervision, submission, examination, and archiving, if these research papers are to sit comfortably within the University Guidelines for Higher Degrees.

See: McMillan, Gail

Archiving Electronic Theses and Dissertations The Virginia Tech Experience. April 13, 1998.

Available [on-line] :

http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/theses/archive.html

Access to research papers at RMIT is in stark contrast with universities such as MIT which promote their research projects as a means of promoting the University itself. At RMIT, even headline grabbing research is buried deep in departmental access statistics (e.g. Robot soccer). There is currently no means of access to on-line research papers other than at a departmental level where there are often no resources to keep sites up-to-date or accessible. The RMIT Library is yet to address the issue of providing on-line access to archives of research or post-graduate work because it is receiving no guidance or instruction from the Higher Degrees Committee.

The chairman of the Higher Degrees Committee appears to be reluctant to discuss the issue of postgraduate electronic thesis and research project submission. RMIT is in danger of being left behind other Australian universities in policy and infrastructure development through lack of leadership at this level. Awareness building and training at this level is urgently needed.

Two useful points of contact are

who are responsible for the Australian Digital Theses Project (ADT)

Available [on-line] :

http://www.library.unsw.edi.au/theses/thesis.html

Conclusions

RMIT University clearly aspires to an effective networked delivery of learning experience as a key component of its Teaching and Learning Strategy.

Like most large organisations, the rush to claim territory in an electronic environment has been at the expense of comprehensive policy development and often shaped by the short term interest of enthusiastic individuals or by proprietary agenda. The digital revolution has been characterised by technological obsolescence and ephemeral standards leaving little firm ground on which to build the infrastructure necessary for the effective management, preservation and use of digital resources.

In an environment where change is the only certainty, the term digital resource not only refers to the digital content of course and administrative material but to the stream of digital material generated, captured (and discarded) every day by students, teaching staff, administrators, managers - even visitors. Effective management of this material requires an understanding that, with digital objects, there is little or no difference between an email, a course outline, a multimedia assignment, a lecture note or even a cable location diagram.

Effective management of these resources will require the development of a networked infrastructure capable of supporting different levels of access at different times and for different purposes. It is important to recognise that decisions that will support long-term access to this material often compete with the short-term interests of a range of individuals, teams and organisations who will make decisions about digital resources during the various and inter-dependent stages of creation, discovery, use, management, preservation, distribution and re-use of these resources.

Networked technology (the world wide web) is now evolving into a primary medium of resource management. An organisation as large and diverse as RMIT University must find a way to balance the development of an effective digital resource management policy against all the legacy management structures, technologies, support systems - (even fonts) that act against regulatory change. Such a policy needs to be simple enough to accommodate RMIT's diverse on-line ambitions and flexible enough to change with the continuing evolution of both the technology and its management.

RMIT needs to understand that a professional and distinctive on-line look and feel (appropriate for a major University) will only be achieved when the site reflects the existence of an underlying infrastructure capable of supporting long-term access to the Universityís resources.

Therefore, in order to develop an exemplary website, the following inter-related actions are recommended :

  1. Develop a Resource Management policy

    RMIT should adopt and implement a comprehensive and strategic university-wide resource management policy conforming to the Dublin Core emerging standard (see Appendix 2: What is metadata?). This is intended to meet the resource management needs of the Alignment Project and to build a solid foundation for providing long-term access to scholarly material and research projects through the University Library (see Appendix 1.).

  2. RMIT should adopt the web master's resource creation guidelines

    To provide effective leadership in the creation of on-line resources, the RMIT webmaster needs the support of University policy to back up his guidelines and standards for the creation of resources. A program of on-going assessment of university sites would be an awareness building strategy that will require additional resources.

  3. RMIT should adopt a Universal Access Policy

    This policy will support the initatives of the RMIT webmaster. It should be based on W3C Accessibility Standards and guidelines, as identified by the RMIT webmaster and used as one of the criteria for this review.

  4. Mandatory electronic submission of theses and research projects.

    RMIT Higher Degrees Committee should collaborate with the University Library to determine how to integrate the electronic submission of theses and research projects with the development of a resource management policy (see action 1 above)

  5. RMIT should deploy an effective server

    With the support of the Deans, the Director of ITS should migrate all higher level web entry points to an advanced and scaleable server capable of meeting, or exceeding, clearly stated international performance standards (see server performance tables).

  6. RMIT should develop or deploy a task-based search engine

    RMIT ITS and the University Library should collaborate on the development or deployment of a task based search engine capable of taking advantage of metadata to provide a seamless and efficient access point to all University resources.

  7. RMIT should move to integrate legacy databases

    RMIT should investigage how to integrate legacy databases such as the CIDW into its Resource Management Strategy and search engine development so that all resources are accessible through an interoperable cross-institutional architecture.

  8. RMIT should develop a Data Protection Code

    An RMIT Data Protection Code conforming to W3C P3P specifications will put the University in a strong position to take advantage of the commercial opportunities inherent in the delivery of flexible learning and on-line services.

  9. RMIT should support its International Division

    RMIT should support its International Division by providing it with its own server and the resources to develop LOTE options for overseas students.



    Appendix 1.

    Framework for a Resource Management Strategy

    1. Resource definition, evaluation and accession

    1. Content: definition of an RMIT resource.
    2. Users: definition of the RMIT user community.
    3. Technical architecture: how this supports long-term access to the resource by the RMIT community. Identifies responsibilities for archiving of software & hardware.
    4. Metadata generation and management: Who is responsible? How is this sufficient for its intended use and long-term maintenance?
    5. Legal issues: contractual and intellectual property rights residing in both the resource and the software supplied with it or required to access it. Terms and conditions which attach to access management and use.
    6. Status issues: resources may be subject to sudden and abrupt changes in location, ownership and rights. They may also have limited life-cycles out of step with RMIT's Teaching and Learning Strategy. Formal accession will require unique indentification names (URNS) in order to track location and use.

    2. Good Practice - Simple Guides

    The foundation of effective management of a digital resource occurs at the point of creation. How a digital resource is created and the form and format it is created in, will determine how it can be managed, used, preserved and re-used at some future date. Authors, migrators and creators of all digital resources need to be aware of their importance to the life span or term of access of a digital resource.

    Each Faculty should commission clear Faculty level interpretations of international resource descriptions and accessibilty standards in the form of Good Practice Guides. Adoption of stanbdards will reduce the costs associated with maintaining viable long-term access to resources. Costs of emulation or migration will increase if resources are generated in proprietary or platform dependent formats.

    Policy should specify that these guides are easily understood and promoted through staff and student training as a minimum requirement in order to:

    1. ensure that digital material can be migrated across platforms with minimum content loss (e.g. standard file formats, compression and encoding).
    2. ensure that digital resources can be transferred between individuals and integrated into departments and faculties. (e.g. filing naming protocols, access through RMIT Library).
    3. ensure that digital resources suit the purposes for which they are created.
    4. ensure that digital resources can be re-used or re-purposed to suit modular course structures.
    5. ensure that appropriate copyright control and access conditions are maintained.


    3. Metadata: Documentation of Digital Resources

    Information about context, structure and even value, is implicit in traditional media. Digital information cannot be understood unless the technical data required for its interpretation is carried with it. Minimum standards of metadata (documentation carried by the digital resource or as surrogates to it) are essential for discovery and the exchange of digital resources between individuals, faculties, departments and teaching teams.

    As professional knowledge managers, the RMIT Library has a key role to play in interpreting the Dublin Core elements and extensions in relation to developing an RMIT metadata policy. Cross-institutional resource discovery will necessitate collaboration with ATN Universities, The National Library of Australia and other Higher Education metadata based initiatives.

    The following areas of minimal metadata need to be defined and integrated into the RMIT Resource Management Strategy:

    1. Information about a resource's provenance, contents, structure, and about the terms and conditions attached to its subsequent management and use (e.g. source, description, rights)
    2. Information which will facilitate resource discovery (e.g. title, URL, keywords)
    3. Information which will permit access to, or ordering of, the resource (e.g. terms and conditions - restrictions)
    4. Information concerning resource management (e.g. format, last update)
    5. Information about the relationship of digital resources to other resources when they form part of, or are intended to form part of , larger collections. (e.g. index, related interest, course material)
    6. Information which facilitates communication between creators and managers.(e.g. emails and contact names)

    4. Long-term Access Strategies

    4.1 Migration

    As an evolving medium for the distribution of digital resources, the World Wide Web may prove flexible enough to carry digital content into the future. A migration strategy pushes the problem of hardware obsolescence to a single point at the server level where backward compatibility and incremental upgrade is the norm. For this reason the strategy of keeping digital material on-line is proving to be an effective preservation strategy for digital resources. The management of these resources relies on their platform independence and the quality of metadata.

    Migration policy will need to be reviewed in the event of a major change in technology or encoding development. Good practice should recognise that simplicity and platform independence is the most appropriate strategy in order to protect against backward incompatibility.

    4.2 Remote resources

    Resources may be created, extended or enhanced by licensing, copying or mirroring existing digital resources created by other universities or agencies. Responsibility for management of these resources needs to be clearly defined.

    Evolving or dynamic resources may require a different set of agreements which involve rights over periodic captures of the resource or `remotely managed' according to an agreed set of guidelines.

    Internally generated and remote evolving or dynamic works will require some form of server access in order to update files. A set of Protocols for the granting of access, needs to be developed in order to ensure that other material is not vulnerable to accidental corruption or deletion (See section 5).

    4.3 Proprietary Products

    Migration is a costly or inappropriate strategy for the following kinds of resources:

    1. Those for which the hardware/platform contributes or makes an essential contribution to the resource's meaning and/or to the experience of its use. (e.g. video, VRML)
    2. Those where data are stored in un-documented proprietary formats or proprietary information systems which store data in undocumented binary formats (e.g. proprietary and legacy data bases - VR products,).
    3. Those where data are stored in un-documented formats and bundled with access software which is also undocumented (e.g. commercial CD-ROM products).

    These kinds of resources will require the development of a policy which will address the need:

    • To maintain working examples of technically obsolete machines in order to run these resources (e.g. DOS computers).
    • To maintain working copies of fully licensed third party software with the work (and hardware to run it) (e.g. Microsoft `Word').

    4.4 Digital storage and archive architecture

    There will need to be several levels of storage architecture. Most digital resources will be accessed through the servers. However, some resources, such as high-quality master copies of research, video, or course material may need to be kept separate from lower quality distribution resources which take up less bandwidth.

    Remote digital resources may require management agreements which involve a program of regular capture or cache. Remote dynamic resources will also require an agreement concerning minimum standards for data encoding and delivery (see section 2).

    5. Disaster plans

    Long-term access and preservation are now inseparable. However, an infrastructure that supports long-term access and accommodates the continuous evolution of the technology as well as a continuous stream of digital content could make RMIT vulnerable to data corruption or server failure.

    Back up snapshots of RMIT's digital environments on contemporary storage media have a role to play but should not be seen as providing a disaster proof strategy or durable means of preservation.

    A disaster strategy needs to be developed which will protect RMIT from minimal data loss by offering:

    1. Protection against widespread power failure or infrastructure collapse as predicted in Y2K scenarios.
    2. Protection against server failure through a regular back up and archiving programs.
    3. Protection against any natural or man-made disaster on-site by a regular back up and archiving program off-site (e.g. fire, flood).
    4. Protection against unauthorised invasion and corruption of data through malice. (e.g. hackers)
    5. Protection against unauthorised intrusion and corruption of data through accident. (e.g. secure layers of access to servers)
    6. Protection against technological obsolescence through a regular program of reviews and integrity checking of archived media.
    7. Those Faculties or divisions which are more dependent on storage media should investigate whether the data preservation functions they require may be most cost effectively out sourced to a specialist computing service, data bank, or other organisation.

    6. Using Digital Resources

    The use of a digital resource will depend on decisions made at the point of creation. High-quality digital collections require robust and enforceable user and developer agreements, combined with user registration, authentication, and other access controls. Many of these issues can be managed using appropriate metadata (e.g. rights statements). Policy needs to address the integration of existing agreements to a set of guidelines. In particular, guidelines need to be developed:

    1. relating to minimum accessibility standards.
    2. relating to the protection and use of data generated as a consequence of use.
    3. relating to the general licensing terms of digital resources.
    4. relating to the access and display of culturally sensitive or culturally restricted material (e.g. Aboriginal protocols).
    5. relating to the access and display of pornographic or other material generally regarded as unsuitable for children (e.g. use of filtering architectures such as PICS).
    6. relating to the re-use and re-purposing of digital resources (e.g. modular course structures through the ATN).
    7. relating to the electronic payment for course access or to specific digital resources.
    8. relating to digital resources which are live or built on the fly. Such resources may contain copyright protected content.
    9. relating to cross-institutional user community identification.

    7. Training and Research

    This area of policy should consider staff and student development as a process rather than an outcome. Above all, awareness building is the core issue. In order to provide a wider context, efforts should be made to integrate an RMIT resource management infrastructure with that of other universities .

    The integration, development and implementation of these policies will require that all staff at RMIT are web literate to the minimum level that they can follow `good practice' at the point of creation of digital material. A staff and student awareness and training policy will need to be developed which systematically identifies:

    1. the need to recognise what digital resources are and what staff and student responsibilies are in relation to these resources.
    2. the on-going training needs of each Faculty.
    3. opportunities which exist for internal workshops and exchange of ideas.
    4. opportunities which exist for the support of research which might assist in the integration of RMIT's collection policies and that of the RMIT Library.
    5. opportunities which exist for the support of research which might assist in the management of educational resources in an electronic environment.

    Appendix 2. What is metadata?

    There is nothing new about the concept of metadata. Metadata is resource description; the kind of information found in a library catalogue. What is new, is the essential role that the creator is now required to play in providing this information.

    Useful metadata is information about a resource that will allow RMIT to provide (or restrict) long-term access to it. Good quality metadata is easy to provide at the point of creation but it is usually difficult (expensive) or impossible to discover retrospectively. At one level, this is because all digital resources are in some way dependent on electronic mediation by computers and software and it is only at the point of creation that a record of these dependencies and descriptions can be recorded. At another level, it is the sheer volume of creation that alters the role of the custodian from cataloguer to repository manager.

    In an ideal world, all digital material would be created independent of proprietary hardware and software. In other words, would run on commonly available hardware using freely available (public domain) software such as a web browser.

    In the real world, many students and staff will be producing work on-line or off-line that is either hardware or software dependent (or both). Unfortunately, the costs of emulation, migration and licensing, increase if resources are generated in proprietary or platform dependent formats. Metadata is information about these applications and formats which allows for (licensed) versions to be archived so that the material can be displayed or accessed.

    Inaccessible dead media has little value. Creators, migrators and managers of an electronic resource need to be aware of their importance to its life span. How a resource is created and the form and format it is created in, will determine how it can be managed, used, preserved and even re-used in the future.

    A key component of any digital resource management strategy is the creation and submission of essential metadata. Attempts to create information repositories such as the CIDW will founder if it is not understood that a digital resource collections cannot exist or be managed in isolation. If RMIT is to provide remote educational experiences, its resource collections need to be maintained in the context of an infinitely large resource space in which resource description is in a standard internationally recognised form. The Dublin Core is now recognised as an inter-operable standard that will allow for these descriptions to be used by everyone.

    When cross institutional infrastructures mature, disparate teaching and learning resources will be able to be discovered and assembled from previously unrelated areas. Networked technology allows us to go from finding a resource to accessing the resource itself (reading the text and seeing the video). This technology is also capable of delivering finer grained levels of access, limited only by our ability to describe and manage the components or parts of a resource (manipulate the image and rearrange the sound). At these finer levels, people and machines are less passive and more active. Distinctions between students and teachers start to blur and profound forces expand the role of a university into being an broker of mediated learning resources and experiences.

    For cultural and academic reasons, attempts by universities to exploit and manage digital content have so far relied on distribution and management structures based on the assumed durability of physical objects (such as CD-ROM or DVD). Archivists are now coming to understand that these paradigms are no longer appropriate. Already, we have lost significant material - irretrievably locked up in redundant and inaccessible storage media. What was the first academic email received in Australia?

    Most people have only a short-term interest in digital content. Digital resources are increasingly generated on the fly. A digital resource is at its most vulnerable when people fail to understand that the object (medium) is now less important than a durable infrastructure capable of supporting long-term access. Some elements of this infrastructure are so different from previous ways of doing things that we have to use new words like metadata.

    In order to be able to provide long-term access to a digital resource, RMIT needs the following metadata:

    • information about the content creator (rights, contributors, publisher,).
    • information about the content that will help it to be found or discovered (coverage, description, title, subject, relationships).
    • information about the resource (formats, system requirements, date, identification).

    It may take several years before the Dublin core is entirely stable, however, it has a number of advantages over proprietary systems of information management.

    • It is simple to understand, create and maintain as well as being capable of being extended to cover complex applications.
    • It can be used by almost anyone with minimal training.
    • It has evolved from an international consensus and is widely accepted amongst the world's major repositories of cultural memory (libraries and museums).
    • It is platform independent and free of expensive proprietary software.
    • It can be delivered and accessed via the Internet by being embedded in any HTML file.
    • It is flexible enough to be used to describe and manage off-line and non-electronic resources.
    • Tools have and are now been developed that can make The Dublin Core convertible to the world's major indexing formats such as MARC.
    • Generator tools have and are being developed that can make the production of high quality metadata quick and easy for anyone.

    Five key processes

    Regardless of its origin or actual location, the management of a digital resource involves:

    • Accession by RMIT. Here the creator/migrator supplies mandatory metadata that is either embedded in the resource or generated as stand alone metadata.
    • Identification: The resource is supplied with a unique identifier such as a Universal Resource Name (URN).
    • Discovery: The resource is able to be found through the RMIT search engine, by a culturally based portal such as edNA or by a global indexing system such as Alta Vista.
    • Transaction: The resource is actually accessed through a course or administrative management architecture.
    • Long-Term Access (preservation) or re-use: Access to the resource is supported by an infrastructure capable not only of providing appropriate descriptions of the resource but also accurate information about technology systems required to access it.

    The basic principles: on-line or off-line.

    Metadata generation

    Metadata generation should take place as close to the point of creation (or effective publication) as is possible. This may occur manually but there are a number of metadata generators apable of automating the process. The Nordic Metadata project uses an on-line form.

    Metadata records may point to teaching resource holdings on a web site, to resources located elsewhere on the Internet or they may point to resources held off-line. They may be lecture notes, postgraduate proposals, printed publications, directories, databases, theses, financial projections, cable location maps, architectural drawings, staff etc. This metadata will be composed of Dublin Core metadata elements and if necessary, RMIT extensions defined within a RDF Scheme.

    Storing Metadata

    There are several metadata record management options available:

    • The easiest, most inter-operable approach is to embed these core descriptions in an HTML document (HTML is the language of the Internet). It has two tags that can be used to capture metadata. These are the "<META>" and "<LINK>" tags. The HTML specifications version 2.0 or better support the inclusion of simple metadata. HTML 4.0 (released in July 1998) supports more complex implementations. These tags must appear within the HEAD section of the HTML document. For example:

    • Storing the metadata record as an HTML document on the web itself. The metadata record acts as a locator record pointing to and/or linking with the described resource whether that resource resides on-line or off-line.

    • Storing metadata external to the resource in some form of database or repository, but still linked to the resource. Metadata can be made exported from a database that allows access via a common standard protocol such as Z39.50. The Commonwealth Government intends to use an external agency. This agency will determines what technology is best to link the metadata repository to the corresponding described resources. For example, use of hyper-links, URLs, or publication and contact details.

    • Storing metadata external to the document in a national repository, such as the Educational Database but linked to the resource.

    There are various arguments for and against these options. At this stage a combination of option 1 & 2 is the most attractive because it is the most flexible when it comes to contributions from remote students. It can be also be implemented immediately using current technology.

    A number of organisations appear to be exploring the feasibility of creating a specific Dublin Core profile capable of querying distributed Dublin Core based databases via Z39.50. Syntax for this and other methods of interrogation are currently being developed in the WWW Consortium (W3C) Resource Description Framework.

    Appendix 3.

    Assessment Criteria and Methodology

    Representative samples of the RMIT web site have been benchmarked against the following emerging international standards:

    • W3C Encoding Specifications
    • W3C Accessibility Guidelines
    • Dublin Core Metadata Specifications
    • Server performance checks

    This technical assessment has been complemented by surveys, interviews, usability testing and assessments including:

    • Recognised usability criteria (usability)
    • Data Protection or Privacy Principles
    • Comparison with other Universities

    A web site is an evolving component of an infinitely large information space. Establishing assessment criteria involves more than just measuring the site against a check list of technical specifications. It is possible that an effective site can be full of encoding errors. While it is important to identify these, there are other important factors known as heuristics. These can only be properly understood if they are drawn from the expectations, language and practices of the site's user community. These heuristics are difficult to quantify but come into play as each screen is assessed.

    Key heuristics:

    1. Visibility: Where am I? What is happening? What can I do next?

      • Clear Branding
      • Clear links

    2. Real world match: Does the site uses the language and conventions of its user community?

    3. User control: Machine crashes are a common example of loss of control. Browsers usually provide emergency exits when something goes wrong (e.g. stalled download). User control has now been established as one of the most essential components of good design.

      • users should have immediate access to all information contained in the site (overview) and be offered filtering mechanisms.
      • users should have access to an immediate escape or home button
      • users should have access to a site map which gives an indication of how the information is organised.
      • users need to be able to select a version of the interface that suits their computing enviroment and preferences.

    4. Consistency: One of the most common forms of confusion is inconsistency of wording (e.g the title does not match the screen header). Consistency also refers to following basic web based conventions of encoding and good practice (e.g. good labels and descriptive links). Consistency is most likely to be achieved through simple and elegant design.

    5. Help and documentation: should be integrated into the site through:

      • Adequate and appropriate Dublin Core based metadata
      • Clear instructions and responsive procedures

    Benchmarking:

    Download times:

    Tables are provided that give download time statistics for the images, applets, and objects on this screen. The first column contains the URL of each item, the second column the item size in kilobytes, and the third column the approximate download time for each item when using a 28,800 baud modem. An arbitrary delay of 0.5 seconds is added for each file to account for slow-downs caused by HTTP connection times.

    Encoding:

    The first attempts to automate the typesetting process the 19th century, created an enduring tension between defacto standards through proprietary systems and standards accepted by a regulatory community. Today, the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) provides specifications for HyperText Markup Language (HTML) the publishing language of the World Wide Web. The current specification is for HTML version 4.0.

    Available [on-line ] http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/

    However, previous versions are still in commonly used:

    HTML 3.2

    Available [on-line ] http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html32.html

    W3C's previous recommendation for HTML 3.2 represented the consensus on HTML features for 1996. HTML 3.2 added widely deployed features such as tables, applets and text flow around images, superscripts and subscripts while providing backwards compatibility with the existing HTML 2.0 Standard .

    HTML 2.0

    Available [on-line ] http://www.w3.org/MarkUp/html-spec/

    was developed by the IETF's HTML working group, which closed in 1996. It set the standard for core HTML features based upon current practise in 1994.

    Use of the World Wide Web is currently dominated by two proprietary browsers (Netscape and Microsoft's Internet Explorer) with almost equal following. However, both bowsers do not fully comply with some aspects of these specifications and employ proprietary extensions. In the interest of interoperability good practice requires conformity to W3C specifications.

    Metadata:

    Metadata describes an information resource. Metadata can serve a variety of purposes, from identifying a resource that meets a particular information need and evaluating suitability of use, to tracking the characteristics of resources for maintenance or usage over time. Different communities of users meet such needs today with a wide variety of metadata standards.

    The Dublin Core is an emerging metadata standard employing many ISO standards. It is a simple yet effective element set for describing a wide range of networked resources. The Dublin Core standard comprises fifteen elements, the semantics of which have been established through consensus by an international, cross-disciplinary group of professionals from librarianship, computer science, text encoding, the museum community, and other related fields of scholarship.

    Available [on-line ] http://purl.oclc.org/metadata/dublin_core/

    The Gateway to Educational Materials Project (GEM) provides an international application of the Dublin Core to educational resources.

    Available [on-line ] http://purl.oclc.org/metadata/dublin_core/

    In Australia, the Dublin Core is now integral to the Australian Government's commitment to be a `leading edge user' of Internet technology by 2001 and of electronic transaction by 2000. It is intended that a secure Government wide intranet will be established by the end of 1998. Trials of the Australian Government Locator Service Implementation Plan began on July 1st 1998.

    Available [on-line ] http://www.ogit.gov.au/implementationplan.html

    Acessibility:

    Access can be enhanced or restricted in many ways. Ease of access is the key to a viable on-line service delivery. The W3C provides guidelines for accessibility standards. These help to provide a set of conventions that promote interoperability in a technical free for all.

    Available [on-line ] http://www.w3.org/TR/1998/WD-WAI-PAGEAUTH-0203

    Similarly, there are core standards developed by the NSW Attorney General's Department for the purpose of promoting access and equity online.

    Available [on-line ] http://www.lawlink.nsw.gov.au/standards.html

    Acessibility checklist

    These standards often overlap with the criteria above. They are combined into following checklist

    Encoding check

    Reason

    Valid Markup

    Conforms to WC3 specifications

    ALT tags in Image Source

    ALT tags provide graphical meaning to visually or technically impaired.

    ALT tags in Icon type (link) images

    ALT tags provide link descriptions to visually or technically impaired.

    ALT tags with Java applets

    ALT tags provide process descriptions to visually or technically impaired.

    Text anchors with image map.

    Text anchors (links) can be read by screen readers and offer choice to visually or technically impaired.

    No frames option with frames.

    Not all browsers support frames.

    RGB values needed for non default colors

    RGB colors are able to be displayed on all hardware platforms.

    BG COLOR and TEXT COLOR used in combination, not alone.

    Possibly unreadable combinations if default colors activated.

    Forms need alternative print and submit function

    Visually impaired need alternative submission process.

    Graphics overload

    Graphics that total more than 30K can result in load times of more than 20 or 30 seconds for low end connections.

    Height and width specifications should be given for images

    Height and width specified graphics load faster

    Screen integrity

    Low end screen dimensions effectively 475 pixels x 350 pixels mean larger items not fully displayed. Exceptions lists etc.

    Relative links

    Good practice for transfer purposes

    Metadata

    long-term access - maintenance - discovery

    Link descriptions

    Appropriate links are descriptive but terse - not `click'

    Annoyance

    Highlighting (as in scrolling, blinking, marquee style) should be used with care.

    Horizontal lines

    Confusion when a horizontal line is used

    In order to compare sites and performance against W3C standards, several on-line tools have been used to generate quantitative data for this this assessment:

    • Bobby is an on-line validation tool that analyzes web pages for their accessibility to people with disabilities as well as their compatibility with various browsers. The analysis of accessibility is based on the latst revisions of a working draft of the W3C's WAI Page Author guidelines.

    • Net Mechanic's site validator checks conformity with a range of W3C HTML standards.

    • Net Mechanic's Server Check will be used throughout the review. Server Check is a tool for monitoring the reliability and performance of Web servers. A robot monitors and tests the server for 8 hours, fetching the site every 15 minutes. For each test in the monitoring period the amount of time required for each step of the retrieval process is measured.

    Appendix 4.

    Surveys, Interviews & Usability Testing

    Information sought by prospective undergraduate students

    Prospective university students, currently at high schools, from a rural area (Shepparton) and an inner city area (Northcote) completed questionnaires. They rated a selection of topics according to whether they considered them to be "essential", "important", "of interest" or "of little interest". The maximum possible rating for any one topic was 100%, representing a unanimous "essential" rating from the sample group.

    The topic list was developed in consultation with the Extension Education Officer of the Career Education Association of Victoria.

    Rural sample (prospective students - Shepparton) ranking in order of importance:

    1. Prerequisite subjects required for application into specific courses.
    2. Cut off scores needed to qualify for entrance into specific courses.
    3. Accommodation information.
    4. Financial assistance available to students.
    5. Master list of all subjects offered at a university or institution.
    6. Career outcomes of specific courses as presented by departments.
    7. Open day information.
    8. Special entry requirements such as tests, interviews, folios.
    9. Fees.
    10. Course transfer possibilities and procedures.
    11. Scholarships available.
    12. Enrolment day procedures and process.
    13. Career outcomes of specific courses as presented by university students.
    14. Special entry opportunities and conditions.
    15. Student support services offered.
    16. Vocationally oriented programs and courses for graduates.
    17. Examples of structure of subjects and work undertaken in a major area of study.
    18. Admissions staff directory.
    19. On-line application forms accessible via the web.
    20. Links or pathways from VET/TAFE courses to Higher Education courses.
    21. Information for parents of prospective undergraduate students.
    22. Extracurricular activities offered such as societies, clubs, events.
    23. Provisions for disabilities at specific campuses.
    24. Distance learning opportunities allowing off-campus study.
    25. Equal opportunity policy.
    26. Overseas exchange study opportunities.


    Urban sample (prospective students - Northcote)

    1. Cut off scores needed to qualify for entrance into specific courses.
    2. Special entry requirements such as tests, interviews, folios.
    3. Enrolment day procedures and process.
    4. Prerequisite subjects required for application into specific courses.
    5. Career outcomes of specific courses as presented by departments.
    6. Master list of all subjects offered at a university or institution.
    7. Special entry opportunities and conditions.
    8. Examples of structure of subjects and work undertaken in a major area of study.
    9. Financial assistance available to students.
    10. Career outcomes of specific courses as presented by university students.
    11. Scholarships available.
    12. Fees.
    13. Vocationally oriented programs and courses for graduates.
    14. Equal opportunity policy.
    15. Student support services offered.
    16. Course transfer possibilities and procedures.
    17. Open day information.
    18. On-line application forms accessible via the web.
    19. Admissions staff directory.
    20. Information for parents of prospective undergraduate students.
    21. Overseas exchange study opportunities.
    22. Extracurricular activities offered such as societies, clubs, events.
    23. Links or pathways from VET/TAFE courses to Higher Education courses.
    24. Provisions for disabilities at specific campuses.
    25. Accommodation information.
    26. Distance learning opportunities allowing off-campus study.

    Summary.

    The great majority of sample students indicated most topics listed as important or essential. Comparison between ratings of the two sample groups suggest that both groups had similar concerns with the greatest contrast occurring in relation to the importance of 'accommodation' information.

    Internet access in secondary student sample groups

    Summary.

    The two (rural and urban) sample groups surveyed indicated

    a great majority had access to the web.

    88% of the rural sample group said they used the internet.

    76% of the urban sample group said they used the internet.

    The majority of both groups used Pentiums or 486 Pcs.

    The computers used by the rural sample group were:

    40% Pentium PCs

    32% Apple Mac Power PCs

    24%486 PCs

    4% Apple 68k

    The computers used by the urban sample group were:

    52% Pentium PCs

    28%486 PCs

    8% Apple 68k

    12% no machine or none specified

    Only a small percentage of either group had visited the RMIT site.

    • The purposes of the rural sample visits to the RMIT site included searching for specific course information and scholarship information.
    • The purposes of the urban sample visits to the RMIT site included searching for specific course information and open day information.

    Site purpose - staff perceptions

    Twenty six web workers responded to the RMIT Web Review survey distributed by email. Staff were asked to summarise the main purposes of their particular site and list who they considered to be their key site users / visitors. Web workers were asked to rank the various purposes of their web sites in order of priority.

    Summary.

    The findings represent only those people who. responded to this survey. Surveys returned, indicate the following priorities :

    1. Course information.

    Of the fourteen types of purposes specified, the predominant first priority indicated was presentation of course information. 36% of returned surveys indicated course information to be the first priority while 12% indicated course information to be their second priority.

    2. Staff profiles.

    Staff profiles accounted for 16% of the returned surveys' highest priority ranking making them the second most important category of site information. Many indicated staff profiles to be a significant priority. 28% ranked staff profiles as their second priority, 16% their third priority and 12% their fourth priority.

    3. Departmental news, events and special presentations.

    8% indicated departmental news and events to be the first priority of their sites. 24% indicated this as their site's second priority and 20% as their third priority. Of all categories of information, this was included most often as a purpose for web sites.

    Examples of this category included information on public talks or lectures.

    4. Research information.

    Research information, student profiles, teaching and learning were equally ranked with 12% of surveys indicating them as first priorities. However, presentation of research information was referred to more often than student profiles or teaching and learning as a purpose of web sites.

    5. Student profiles.

    References to student profiles were split between this information being regarded as a first priority or lesser priority.

    6. Teaching and learning.

    References to teaching and learning were split between this purpose being regarded as a first priority or lesser priority.

    7. Staff information.

    Sites such as those connected with Personnel Services and Strategic Financial Planning Group had an obvious staff user focus.

    8. Employment / Funding.

    One survey response indicated information in this area to be a major priority whilst a few others ranked as a lesser priority.

    9. Community Information.

    Two survey responses made reference to community information as a purpose of their site. For example, the Occupational Health and Safety (Applied Chemistry) appears to present opportunities for developing a relationship with an audience beyond the academic community through it's processes of "identifying problems or seeking solutions" that have widespread community relevance.

    Community information could be linked to government in relation to links between RMIT and DEETYA.

    10. Student services.

    Some survey responses made reference to information regarding student services as high priorities.

    11. Index / Links.

    Provision of index or links was cited as a major purpose for a few sites but not a first priority.

    12. Career opportunities

    Some survey responses made reference to information regarding career opportunities as high priorities.

    13. Sales.

    One response indicated sales ( internal and external ) to be their main purpose.

    As RMIT's print service, The Document Shop sees it's site users as customers predominantly from RMIT Faculties and Departments.

    Site user profiles - RMIT staff perceptions

    RMIT web workers were asked who they perceived to be the key users of their web sites. Site audience or user group are listed here starting with the most commonly referred to categories.

    1. prospective students - local and international.

    2. RMIT staff.

    3. Current RMIT students.

    4. Researchers - academics and students internal and external to RMIT.

    5. Industry - organisations. (eg: trade unions, VECCI, ACCI, businesses involved with student placements, Australian Society of Certified Practising Accountants (ASCPA),

    6. Clients/partners.

    7. Community (eg: Occupational Health and Safety information)

    8. Past students.

    9. Prospective employers. ( eg: BMW, Coopers & Lybrand, Com Tech.)

    10. Government. ( eg: DEETYA - Dept of Employment, Education, Training and Youth Affairs, BOS-Board of Studies, VTAC )

    Summary

    Comparison between surveyed RMIT staff perceptions of their own site purposes and their key site users suggests most see their main task to be the presentation of course information to prospective students. The nature of the survey meant responses could indicate specific actual site users or surmised users and usage. There appears to be many opportunities to investigate, refine and cross reference information in response to web users' needs and interests.

    For example, within the Faculty of Applied Chemistry there is a distinct opportunity to develop a highly visible site where many different user groups "could benefit from having direct access to .....Occupational Health and Safety information".

    Usability tests

    The purpose of these usability tests was to gather data on the performance and navigation design of the RMIT web site and four other universities. Emphasis was placed on observation of the response to a simple search task. All participants were asked to search for a contact phone number appropriate for seeking further information on studying for an Economics Degree at each university. Each search began at the home page of each university. Participants were individually observed and the following data recorded:

    • The time lapsed in the course of each search

    • The number of links traversed, measured by mouse clicks

    • Search results

    • Recurring verbal responses to the search task or specific web sites were also noted.

    Tests were conducted at two locations external to RMIT.

    The first was at a computer facility within Northcote High School, using Pentium 233MHZ PCs / 32MB RAM installed with MS NT 4.0 operating system and Netscape Communicator 4.06 web browser software.

    The second was at a private house using an Apple Mac Power PC 6100 60Mhz / 40MB RAM installed with Mac OS 7.5 operating system and Netscape Navigator 3.03 Gold.

    Usability tests - University search tasks compared

    graph showing search times

    Average search times (in minutes and seconds ):

    3.47 The University of Melbourne.

    5.21 University of Technology Sydney.

    5.41 Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

    6.24 RMIT.

    8.33 Swinburne University of Technology.

    graph showing links traversed

    Average number of links traversed (clicks):

    6 RMIT

    6 Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

    6 The University of Melbourne.

    8 University of Technology Sydney.

    11 Swinburne University of Technology.

    graph showing search results

    Percentage of searches yielding a result:

    (100% = success achieved by all test participants)

    87.5% The University of Melbourne.

    80% Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

    75% University of Technology Sydney.

    62.5% RMIT

    44% Swinburne University of Technology.

    Number of final search result variations:

    ( zero = totally consistent search result )

    2 University of Technology Sydney.

    3 RMIT

    3 Swinburne University of Technology.

    3 The University of Melbourne.

    3 Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

    Summary.

    The tests are not exhaustive, but they do serve to indicate some of the strong and weak points of the sites examined, especially when results are viewed beside various remarks made by test participants. Recurring, unsolicited general responses were made by participants in relation to:

    the problem of assumed knowledge of university terminology and organisational structure. eg.: young site visitors were sometimes unclear about the meaning or significance of "postgraduate" and "undergraduate".

    confusion or disappointment with search engines that did not return relevant results. eg.: participants were frustrated by searches that did not produce a range of self explanatory results.

    preference for opening screens that presented more options in an easily recognisable form such as The University of Melbourne's "traditional" index design. Some commented it was functional even if overly conservative in appearance.

    frustration with dead links.

    frustration with course listings where faculties or departments had not consistently adopted use of hyper linked text to aid search.

    frustration with search times in general for a number of sites, sometimes resulting in aborted searches.

    RMITís Community of Web Workers

    RMIT has a large and changing population of web workers.

    A snapshot of web workers in September 1998 reveals 'webmasters' exist at both Faculty and Department level but not consistently throughout RMIT. In addition to those referred to as 'webmasters' there are many staff 'web workers' who make direct contributions the RMIT web site. Hierarchy is sometimes ambiguous or not applied, because web pages are often produced quite autonomously within Faculties, Departments or Units and are sometimes fragmented throughout various campuses. The levels of web production, web literacy and sophistication of localised site design vary greatly reflecting the stage of web development in any given area of RMIT.

    In addition to staff web workers, RMIT has a transient population of students producing web work that forms an essential part of public perception of RMIT. Web work show cased in this context may be developmental or experimental, or work in progress.

    Webmasters/web workers who responded to the RMIT Web Review email survey are listed below. (Our thanks to all those who contributed their time and knowledge to this review.)

    Allan, Mr. Garry

    Bartosiewicz, Ms.Izabella

    Bowker, Mr. Ian

    Brown, Mr. Paul

    Cartwright, Dr.William

    Chapman, Mr. Dion

    Charlton, Mr. Robert

    Deerson, Mr. Peter

    Dusting, Mr. Warren

    Hanson, Ms. Jane

    Hegazi, Mr. Dean

    Hinde, Ms. Elizabeth

    Kidd, Mr. Graham

    Laidler, Mr. Mark

    Li, Ms. Lisa

    McDowell, Mr. Ivan

    Martin, Mr. Lawrence

    Miles, Mr. Adrian

    Mueller, Ms. Marita

    Ozege, Ms. Serif

    Rook, Mr. Trevor

    Reeves, Ms. Penny

    Snell, Mr. Mark

    Walker, Prof. Derek

    Wiltshire, Mr. Neil

    Wesley, Ms. Neroli

    Appendix 5: Server Assessment

    This server check was performed using an adapted form of the on-line checking tool - Server Check. This tool monitors the reliability and performance of Web servers. A robot monitors and tests the server for 8 hours, fetching the RMIT Homepage every 15 minutes. For each test in the monitoring period the amount of time required for each step of the retrieval process is measured. N.B. server performance varies by time of day and day of the week.

    A more detailed explanation of each indicator is available on-line

    http://www.netmechanic.com/server_check/understand.htm

    Because there are so many variables that this check should be seen as an indication only. The 10k download times have been included in a more general view of university performance.

    Available on-line:

    http://www.cinemedia.net/FOD/DuckDigital/server1.html

    • Host Ping: Indicates the network speed between the RMIT server and NetMechanic's.
    • DNS Look Up: Indicates the time required to look up RMIT address in the DNS database.
    • Connect Time: The time required to open a network connection to the RMIT server.
    • Download Time (10k file): The time which would be required to download a 10k file from the RMIT server.
    • Number of Timeouts: The number of times the RMIT server failed to respond within 30 seconds.

    Warning areas are highlighted in dark yellow; problem areas are highlighted in red.

    Host Ping: Indicates the network speed between the RMIT server and NetMechanic's.
    DNS Look Up: Indicates the time required to look up RMIT server's address in the DNS database.
    Connect Time: The time required to open a network connection to the RMIT server.
    Download Time (10k file): The time which would be required to download a 10k file from the RMIT server.
    Number of Timeouts: The number of times the RMIT server failed to respond within 30 seconds.

    Warning areas are highlighted in dark yellow; problem areas are highlighted in red.

    Date: Thu 3 September
    Overall Rating: Poor - (bottom 20% of servers)
    RMIT Server Performance Summary
    Event RMIT's
    Average         		NetMechanic
    Average         		Percentile
    Host Ping 3319.74 millisec 530.52 millisec 3 th
    DNS Look Up 0.01 sec 0.09 sec 89 th
    Connect Time 3.71 sec 0.85 sec 4 th
    Download Time (10k file) 7.42 sec 1.71 sec 4 th
    Timeouts 3 -  


    Date: Thu 10 September
    Overall Rating: Poor - (bottom 20% of servers)
    RMIT Server Performance Summary
    Event RMIT's
    Average         		NetMechanic
    Average         		Percentile
    Host Ping 1305.40 millisec 657.79 millisec 7 th
    DNS Look Up 0.05 sec 0.08 sec 34 th
    Connect Time 1.96 sec 0.99 sec 10 th
    Download Time (10k file) 4.73 sec 1.86 sec 10 th
    Timeouts 1 -


    Date: Fri 11 September
    Overall Rating: Poor - (bottom 20% of servers)
    RMIT Server Performance Summary
    Event RMIT's
    Average         		NetMechanic
    Average         		Percentile
    Host Ping 5080.48 millisec 649.50 millisec 3 th
    DNS Look Up 0.02 sec 0.08 sec 69 th
    Connect Time 5.55 sec 1.00 sec 3 th
    Download Time (10k file) 8.64 sec 1.91 sec 4 th
    Timeouts 5 -


    Date: Sun 13 Sep
    Overall Rating: Poor - (bottom 20% of servers)
    RMIT Server Performance Summary
    Event RMIT's
    Average         		NetMechanic
    Average         		Percentile
    Host Ping 454.88 millisec 592.64 millisec 16 th
    DNS Look Up 0.05 sec 0.07 sec 33 th
    Connect Time 0.47 sec 0.99 sec 32 th
    Download Time (10k file) 3.79 sec 1.88 sec 12 th
    Timeouts 0 -


    Date: Mon 14 Sept
    Overall Rating: Poor - (bottom 20% of servers)
    RMIT Server Performance Summary
    Event RMIT's
    Average         		NetMechanic
    Average         		Percentile
    Host Ping 420.17 millisec 603.21 millisec 17 th
    DNS Look Up 0.36 sec 0.08 sec 2 th
    Connect Time 0.53 sec 1.06 sec 31 th
    Download Time (10k file) 3.24 sec 1.95 sec 14 th
    Timeouts 0 -


    Date: Mon 21 Sep
    Overall Rating: Poor - (bottom 20% of servers)
    RMIT Server Performance Summary
    Event RMIT's
    Average         		NetMechanic
    Average         		Percentile
    Host Ping 532.93 millisec 594.08 millisec 17 th
    DNS Look Up 0.04 sec 0.10 sec 44 th
    Connect Time 0.62 sec 0.98 sec 32 th
    Download Time (10k file) 4.55 sec 2.12 sec 12 th
    Timeouts 0 -


    Date: Tue 22 Sep
    Server Type: Apache/1.2.0
    Overall Rating: Poor - (bottom 20% of servers)

    RMIT Server Performance Summary
    Event RMIT's
    Average         		NetMechanic
    Average         		Percentile
    Host Ping 444.43 millisec 545.03 millisec 18 th
    DNS Look Up 0.03 sec 0.13 sec 56 th
    Connect Time 0.54 sec 0.93 sec 33 th
    Download Time (10k file) 2.90 sec 2.08 sec 19 th
    Timeouts 0 -


    Other Universities

    Report For: www.harvard.edu
    Date: Mon 21 Sep
    Server Type: Apache/1.3b5
    Overall Rating: Very Good - (better than 60% of servers)

    Harvard University Performance Summary
    Event Harvard Server's
    Average         		NetMechanic
    Average         		Percentile
    Host Ping * 594.70 millisec th
    DNS Look Up 0.13 sec 0.10 sec 21 th
    Connect Time 0.05 sec 0.98 sec 83 th
    Download Time (10k file) 0.28 sec 2.12 sec 71 th
    Timeouts 0 -


    Report For: www.unsw.edu.au
    Date: Mon 21 Sep
    Server Type: Apache/1.2.5
    Overall Rating: Fair - (better than 20% of servers)

    University of N.S.W Performance Summary
    Event UNSW Server's
    Average         		NetMechanic
    Average         		Percentile
    Host Ping 442.70 millisec 594.49 millisec 19 th
    DNS Look Up 0.06 sec 0.10 sec 36 th
    Connect Time 0.46 sec 0.98 sec 36 th
    Download Time (10k file) 2.08 sec 2.12 sec 25 th
    Timeouts 0 -


    Report For: www.deakin.edu.au
    Date: Mon 21 Sep
    Server Type: Apache/1.3b6
    Overall Rating: Poor - (bottom 20% of servers)

    Deakin Performance Summary
    Event Deakin Server's
    Average         		NetMechanic
    Average         		Percentile
    Host Ping 1383.08 millisec 594.68 millisec 8 th
    DNS Look Up 0.03 sec 0.10 sec 53 th
    Connect Time 1.67 sec 0.98 sec 15 th
    Download Time (10k file) 3.53 sec 2.12 sec 16 th
    Timeouts 1 -


    Report For: www.stanford.edu
    Date: Mon 21 Sep
    Server Type: Stronghold/1.3
    Overall Rating: Good - (better than 40% of servers)

    Stanford University Performance Summary
    Event Stanford Server's
    Average         		NetMechanic
    Average         		Percentile
    Host Ping 76.15 millisec 594.47 millisec 57 th
    DNS Look Up 0.15 sec 0.10 sec 17 th
    Connect Time 0.09 sec 0.98 sec 73 th
    Download Time (10k file) 0.64 sec 2.12 sec 52 th
    Timeouts 0 -


    Report For: www.uts.edu.au
    Date: Mon 14 Sep
    Server Type: NCSA/1.5
    Overall Rating: Poor - (bottom 20% of servers)
    UTS Performance Summary
    Event UTS
    Average         		NetMechanic
    Average         		Percentile
    Host Ping 3117.64 millisec 586.83 millisec 3 th
    DNS Look Up 0.03 sec 0.07 sec 49 th
    Connect Time 3.15 sec 0.99 sec 6 th
    Download Time (10k file) 5.57 sec 1.89 sec 8 th
    Timeouts 3 -


    Report For: www.unimelb.edu.au
    Date: Mon 14 Sep
    Server Type: Apache/1.2b7
    Overall Rating: Poor - (bottom 20% of servers)
    Melbourne University Performance Summary
    Event Uni Melbourne's
    Average         		NetMechanic
    Average         		Percentile
    Host Ping 3213.08 millisec 584.61 millisec 3 th
    DNS Look Up 0.03 sec 0.07 sec 49 th
    Connect Time 3.24 sec 0.98 sec 6 th
    Download Time (10k file) 3.76 sec 1.88 sec 12 th
    Timeouts 3 -


    Report For: www.swin.edu.au
    Date: Mon 14 Sep
    Server Type: Apache/1.3.0
    Overall Rating: Poor - (bottom 20% of servers)

    Swinburne Performance Summary
    Event Swinburne's
    Average         		NetMechanic
    Average         		Percentile
    Host Ping 3126.73 millisec 582.85 millisec 3 th
    DNS Look Up 0.01 sec 0.07 sec 88 th
    Connect Time 2.21 sec 0.98 sec 9 th
    Download Time (10k file) 3.35 sec 1.87 sec 13 th
    Timeouts 2 -


    Report For: web.mit.edu
    Date: Mon 14 Sep
    Server Type: CERN/3.0
    Overall Rating: Fair - (better than 20% of servers)

    MIT's Server Performance Summary
    Event MIT's
    Average         		NetMechanic
    Average         		Percentile
    Host Ping 37.06 millisec 583.07 millisec 80 th
    DNS Look Up 0.01 sec 0.07 sec 88 th
    Connect Time 0.71 sec 0.98 sec 24 th
    Download Time (10k file) 1.02 sec 1.88 sec 37 th
    Timeouts 0 -


    Report For: www.sun.com
    Date: Mon 14 Sep
    Server Type: Netscape-Enterprise/2.01
    Overall Rating: Fair - (better than 20% of servers)

    Sun Microsystems Performance Summary
    Event Sun's
    Average         		NetMechanic
    Average         		Percentile
    Host Ping 64.20 millisec 601.92 millisec 61 th
    DNS Look Up 0.11 sec 0.08 sec 20 th
    Connect Time 0.09 sec 1.04 sec 73 th
    Download Time (10k file) 1.54 sec 1.94 sec 29 th
    Timeouts 1 -


    Report For: www.qut.edu.au
    Date: Tue 22 Sep
    Server Type: NCSA/1.5.2
    Overall Rating: Fair - (better than 20% of servers)

    QUT ServerPerformance Summary
    Event QUT's
    Average         		NetMechanic
    Average         		Percentile
    Host Ping 344.86 millisec 570.63 millisec 21 th
    DNS Look Up 0.25 sec 0.10 sec 7 th
    Connect Time 0.36 sec 0.95 sec 38 th
    Download Time (10k file) 1.61 sec 2.08 sec 30 th
    Timeouts 0 -

    Report For: www.unisa.edu.au
    Date: Tue 22 Sep
    Server Type: Microsoft-IIS/4.0
    Overall Rating: Fair - (better than 20% of servers)

    UNISA Server Performance Summary
    Event UNISA's
    Average         		NetMechanic
    Average         		Percentile
    Host Ping 382.55 millisec 570.48 millisec 19 th
    DNS Look Up 0.23 sec 0.10 sec 8 th
    Connect Time 0.40 sec 0.94 sec 37 th
    Download Time (10k file) 1.62 sec 2.08 sec 30 th
    Timeouts 0 -

    Report For: www.curtin.edu.au
    Date: Tue 22 Sep
    Server Type: Netscape-Enterprise/2.01
    Overall Rating: Fair - (better than 20% of servers)

    Curtin Server Performance Summary
    Event Curtin's
    Average         		NetMechanic
    Average         		Percentile
    Host Ping 387.19 millisec 570.34 millisec 19 th
    DNS Look Up 0.21 sec 0.10 sec 9 th
    Connect Time 0.58 sec 0.94 sec 31 th
    Download Time (10k file) 1.97 sec 2.08 sec 26 th
    Timeouts 0 -

    Report For: www.usyd.edu.au
    Date: Tue 22 Sep
    Server Type: Apache/1.3.0
    Overall Rating: Fair - (better than 20% of servers)

    University of Sydney Server Performance Summary
    Event Sydney's
    Average         		NetMechanic
    Average         		Percentile
    Host Ping 347.64 millisec 544.80 millisec 21 th
    DNS Look Up 0.05 sec 0.13 sec 40 th
    Connect Time 0.45 sec 0.93 sec 36 th
    Download Time (10k file) 1.84 sec 2.08 sec 28 th
    Timeouts 0 -

    Report For: www.monash.edu.au
    Date: Tue 22 Sep
    Server Type: Apache/1.2.5
    Overall Rating: Fair - (better than 20% of servers)

    Monash Server Performance Summary
    Event Monash's
    Average         		NetMechanic
    Average         		Percentile
    Host Ping 447.15 millisec 544.89 millisec 18 th
    DNS Look Up 0.05 sec 0.13 sec 40 th
    Connect Time 0.55 sec 0.93 sec 33 th
    Download Time (10k file) 1.11 sec 2.08 sec 40 th
    Timeouts 0 -

    Report For: www.vut.edu.au
    Date: Tue 22 Sep
    Server Type: Netscape-Enterprise/3.01
    Overall Rating: Fair - (better than 20% of servers)

    VUT Server Performance Summary
    Event VUT's
    Average         		NetMechanic
    Average         		Percentile
    Host Ping 369.12 millisec 544.95 millisec 20 th
    DNS Look Up 0.05 sec 0.13 sec 40 th
    Connect Time 0.38 sec 0.93 sec 38 th
    Download Time (10k file) 1.84 sec 2.08 sec 28 th
    Timeouts 0 -

    Glossary

    AGLSIP: Australian Government Locater Service Implementation Plan

    Animated GIF: A GIF graphic built from multiple images appearing in

    sequence. Animated GIFs can be used as a simple form of animation. They

    can also be used to create simple fades, dissolves etc.

    Alphanumeric: Combination of letter and numbers.

    ALT: HTML tag used to provide alternative source of information.

    ASCII: American Standard Code for Information Interchange. A scheme that provides standard numeric values to represent letters, numbers, punctuation marks and other characters. The use of standard values allows computers and computer programs to exchange data.

    Bobby: An on-line validation tool that analyses web pages for their accessibility to people with disabilities as well as their compatibility with various browsers.

    <BODY></BODY> : HTML mark up tag for a space in which material to be displayed on screen can be placed.

    Cookies: are a general mechanism which server side connections (such as

    CGI scripts) can use to both store and retrieve information on the client side of the connection. http://www.netscape.com/newsref/std/cookie_spec.html

    Crosswalk: A table that maps the relationships and equivalence between two or more metadata formats.

    Dublin Core: A core set of 15 metadata elements. There have been four developmental metadata workshops. The first was held in Dublin (Ohio) and gave its name to a simple set of 13 elements known as the Dublin Core. The second was held at the University of Warwick, in the UK and led to the development of a conceptual framework for different varieties of metadata known as the Warwick extensions. The third, back at Dublin, added 2 more elements to the core relating to images. The fourth, held in Canberra (Australia 1997), attempted to reach a consensus about how these basic elements could be refined.

    Elements: Fields used as a basis for metadata resource descriptions.

    Format: The Dublin Core element used to designate the data representation of a resource.

    Frame: A technique for dividing your browser window into separate spaces containing different files

    GIF: Graphics Interchange Format (GIF). The dominant graphics format on the Web.

    Granularity: The degree to which something is composed of small pieces.

    <H2></H2> : HTML mark up tag for a document space in which a Level 2 size heading can be placed.

    <HEAD></HEAD> : HTML mark up tag for a space in which metadata can be placed.

    HTML: Hypertext Mark up Language The standard text-formatting language for documents on the World Wide Web. HTML text files contain content that is rendered on a computer screen and mark up, or tags, which can be used to tell the computer how to format that content. HTML tags can also be used to encode metadata and to tell the computer how to respond to certain user actions, such as a mouse click. For more information, see http://www.w3.org/MarkUp/.

    HTTP: The Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) is the set of rules for exchanging files (text, graphic images, sound, video, and other multimedia files) on the World Wide Web. Relative to the TCP/IP suite of protocols (which are the basis for information exchange on the Internet), HTTP is an application protocol. See: HTTP.

    ISP: Internet service provider.

    Junk Mail: Unsolicited email usually selling product or service.

    LOW SRC: A precursive file usually smaller than another which is down loaded before the intended file. e.g. A low grade image before a much higher grade and therefore larger file size image.

    Lynx: a text-mode web browser

    MARC: National standard for library holdings' database descriptions. Stores a given holding's metadata in one record with a flat structure. Their record comprises four components: a leader, a record directory, control files and variable fields. An implementation of ANSI/NISO Z39.2 the American National Standard for Bibliographic Information interchange. The USMARC format documents the designations and content designators for the fields that are to be carried in records structured according to Z39.2.

    Metadata: A syntactically correct representation of the descriptive information (metadata) for an information resource. In the case of Dublin Core, a representation of the Dublin Core elements that has been defined for the resource. The majority of metadata records and record fragments in this document are presented in HTML syntax.

    MIME: Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions The standard for attaching files to Internet e-mail messages. Attached files may be text, graphics, spreadsheets, documents, sound files, etc.

    MPEG: Moving Picture Experts Group MPEG - International Standards used for coding audio-visual information in a digital compressed format.

    Net Mechanic: On-line encoding validation service/tool http://www.netmechanic.com/html_check_power.htm

    Nordic Metadata Project: the first international project, which made the choice of building Dublin Core based tools. http://linnea.helsinki.fi/meta/nmfinal.htm

    SCHEME: A systematic, orderly design or combination of elements. In the case of the HTML META tag attribute, SCHEME is any recognized coding system used to interpret the meaning of an element.

    Sitemap: A structured overview of an entire web site and its contents.

    Thumbnail: Small sized image used to reference a larger one.

    UK Biblink Project: aims to establish a relationship between national bibliographic agencies and publishers of electronic material

    URI: Uniform Resource Identifier. The syntax for all names/addresses that refer to resources on the World Wide Web. For information about Internet addressing, see http://www.w3.org/Addressing/Addressing.html.

    URL: (Uniform Resource Locator) (pronounced YU-AHR-EHL or, in some quarters, UHRL) is the address of a file (resource) accessible on the Internet. The type of resource depends on the Internet application protocol. Using the World Wide Web's protocol, the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) , the resource can be an HTML page (like the one you're reading), an image file, a program such as a CGI application or Java applet, or any other file supported by HTTP. The URL contains the name of the protocol required to access the resource, a domain name that identifies a specific computer on the Internet, and a hierarchical description of a file location on the computer. See: URL.

    URN: Uniform Resource Name. A URI (name and address of an object on the Internet) that has some assurance of persistence beyond that normally associated with an Internet domain or host name. For information about Internet addressing,

    see http://www.w3.org/Addressing/Addressing.html.

    WAI: The Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI), in coordination with other organizations, is pursuing accessibility of the Web through five primary areas of work: technology, guidelines, tools, education & outreach, and research & development. http://www.w3.org/WAI/WAI.html

    W3C: World Wide Web Consortium. The W3C is an international industry consortium founded in October 1994 to lead the World Wide Web to its full potential by developing common protocols that promote its evolution and ensure its interoperability. For additional information see http://www.w3.org/Consortium/.

    World Wide Web. The panoply of Internet resources (text, graphics, audio, video, etc.) that are accessible via a web browser

    XML: Extensible Mark up Language (XML) A subset of Standard Generalised Mark up Language (SGML), a widely used international text processing standard. XML is being designed to bring the power and flexibility of generic SGML to the Web, while maintaining interoperability with full SGML and HTML. For more information, see http://www.w3.org/XML/

    Z39.50: Transfer protocol for bibliographic information in a networked environment.